LOCATION DETAILS: We were driving on county road A6, off of Hwy 36 between Dales and Manton, in Tehama County.

NEAREST TOWN: Between Manton and Payne's Creek

NEAREST ROAD: We were on the county road at the time

OBSERVED: I was driving home (see details, below) with my son and daughter late at night. Suddenly an ape crossed the road with incredible speed. We all three saw it. We had been talking excitedly about who knows what, all very alert, all eyes on the road, when this occurred. Our conversation came to a complete halt. All three of us had to process what we had just seen, we just couldn't believe our eyes. This was an ape-like animal, about the size of a large chimpanzee, traveling across the road with what can only be described as lightening speed. It disappeared on the other side of the road as if it had disappeared into another dimension--almost swallowed up by the night so to speak. It was on its knuckles, more or less, the way apes run. This was apparent to all three of us, we are all fairly intelligent people with a wide variety of experience with animals. We have lived in the woods for 20+ years in Manton in Tehama County and have all seen mountain lions, bears, racoons, otters, fisher, ringtails, raccoons, etc. and this was nothing like any of those animals. We all three had the same experience, we all three agreed that what we had just seen had to be some kind of primate. And we all three had never seen anything move like that before in our lives. After some discussion we agreed that it might be a young Sasquatch. In the days ahead I got some literature about Bigfoot at the library, and we have determined that it may very well have been a Bigfoot sighting.

ALSO NOTICED: Well, we were in kind of a funny state of mind, as I said, just a little hyped up. Or, to put it another way, we were perhaps hyper-alert. It was pitch black on this road, which is usually quite deserted, and late at night like this there was not another soul around. This is a very isolated area.

OTHER WITNESSES: In the car with me was my son and my daughter. We were all three wide awake, having drank some coffee to keep awake. We had been on a jet returning from Florida visiting other family members. WE got in our car in Sacramento and drove all the way home, another 3 hours. We were kind of keyed up. We were talking excitedly with one another, just enjoying being on the road home again. David and Abby were in their late teens. I am in my late forties. We were just in the car, sitting, I was driving, and we were all three talking with one another. Both kids were very alert, kind of almost on the edge of their seats.

OTHER STORIES: No.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Very early in the morning, about 1 or 2:00 AM. It was a warm, California summer night in August. The weather was dry.

ENVIRONMENT: Ok--we were in the vicinity of the Manton Plains as it is called--a rolling hill country in the Payne's Creek sub-watershed of the Sacramento River watershed. The vegetation is grassland with blue oak, live oak, and lava rock. We were almost to Soap Butte. If you check the Manton or Ink's Creek quads I think you will find Soap Butte. We were in the vicinity of Dale's Lake, a large vernal pool area.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Robert Leiterman:

Witness stated that the animal passed within 20 feet of their moving vehicle. Witness thought it might have been a young one using its front legs to get more speed. She is familiar with bears and other wildlife and believed it did not behave like anything she has seen before. She said it moved like a monkey but very fast across the roadway as if it were trying to meet up with something on the other side, almost like a fawn or younger deer would do top stay up with its mother.

About BFRO Investigator Robert Leiterman:

* Graduated from Humboldt State University B.A. in Recreation Administration and Minor in Natural Resources 1986.